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It's Fun to Play the Piano ... Please Pass It On!

I need your advise re: whitney piano. I found one near our town, but I don't know if it's a reliable piano. It's going to be for my 2 boys, age 9 and 8. They've been attending piano lessons for less than 2 years now, and been using a portable elec. keyboard. They're starting to learn to use the pedals, so I need a piano asap. If you have any experience that you can share about this brand of piano, I would really appreciate it. I found it on ebay, and it's ending soon. Seller said it's about 25 years old. Help!

Sounds like you have a price point in mind. I would just try and play as many as I could in that price range. It really is going to come down to the piano itself and its condition vs. the brand. If the owner of the Whitney bought it originally and took care of it you are probably fine, if it has been passed around and subject to extreme conditions and neglect you'll have a money pit. What can you learn about the piano from the seller on ebay?

At some point if the boys continue to progress you will need to upgrade so just make the best short term decision you can.

I e-mailed the seller and here's the info that he gave me:bought it in late 80's for piano lessons but doesn't really use it for a whilemodel # 3082serial # T01034keys are working goodfinish is really good

The Whitney was a promotional spinet "piano" made by Kimball back in the early 1980s I believe. One of my neighbors had one. Although I'm a pianist, I can tune and tuned the Whitney occasionally as a favor. The workmanship was nil, i.e., misaligned tuning pins, poor string spacing, etc. The action was not very condusive to good playing either. The piano did not tune well at all, and many tuners dreaded spending their time trying to tune them--and the sound of the piano was abysmal. This kind of instrument would not only not inspire a young person learning to play, but would discourage the kid. Again, this was designed as a promotional piano. "Bait and switch" is a very bad sales tactic, but anyone in that era who got switched from the Whitney was probably done a big favor. You would be well advised to move on to something of better quality that's still within your budget.

Would you recommend something better? What about an Everett? I saw one on-line, and there's another one in our local piano dealer...I spoke with a piano technician, and he said I should have it checked first by a piano tech. He mentioned the same word "promotional" which translates to low end pieces.

I Owned A Kimball Whittney for about Ten Years. Now I Own A Player Piano I Got Out Of My Local Classified Section. The Whitney Was A Peice of junk!!! I Would Suggest Looking Through The Classifieds and Find A "Free Piano You Haul" And Spend the about $200 For Repairs

Kimball Whittney spinet = nearly the minimum of the state of the art. Need to ramp up the budget a little to get an instrument that won't hinder the boys development in really learning to play. Used console pianos younger than 20 years old are all around for $1000 - $1500.

I posted back in 2006, but I believe that the Whitney is so horrendous that, understandably, people cannot refrain from panning this wannabe "piano". So the thread serves as an on-going warning beacon to consumers which is a good thing!

I had a Whitney Spinet that was actually reasonably good, for a spinet. Even my tuner was surprised that it held a tuning nicely, and sounded all right. Of course, the bass was quite muddy, weak, and undefined, but c'mon, the longest bass strings couldn't have been much over 30 inches, if that.

I must have just gotten lucky. And took care of it by watching the humidity closely.

Knowing what I know now, I wouldn't recommend a new one to anybody, but I think the guy I gave it to got a deal!

SilverShadow
Junior Member
Registered: 08/15/10
Posts: 3
Loc: United states

I have a Kimball Whitney, got it about year ago, and I agree it's not the best piano. It came from an owner who never played it, so the tuning and sound is not that good, but we didn't need to tune it as much because our piano tuner says it's staying really well. But heck, it was given to us, and it's better than nothing. I will have to disagree with it being "horrendous", at least my model is not as low quality as you describe it to be. Of course, I've had some problems with it though, since the materials are natural, the humidity and heat where I live messes up the wood, causing the pedals to squeak, malfunctions in the action, etc. I even broke a key once... but all this can be fixed.but I'm grateful to even have a instrument to practice on, it's good for where I'm a now... and the money that my family has now, it's fine.